Deluding Conundrum
by SunderStorm
Summary: An AU where Kamek successfully kidnaps both Mario and Luigi at the beginning of Yoshi's story and transforms them into Bowser's henchmen. A kidnapping gone wrong has sent the two brothers in a turmoil about their lives, and wonders if the very ones who raised them are hiding more than they share behind closed doors. (Discontinued).
1. To An Uncertain Future

**Hello everyone!**

 **Yeah, remember that one fanfiction that I wrote, what? 2 years ago? It only had one chapter and I was about to put more onto it, until I had a real good look at it.  
It started to become a pile of sh*t rotting in a corner for days without anyone attending to it.  
** **Sh*t didn't make sense, and I had other ideas being thrown into the mix so I threw it away.  
** **Hopefully this rewritten version will do justice to the other incarnation, maybe even attract more people, who knows?  
** **Sorry, again, for any grammatical errors. I would like if anyone would correct me on any errors.  
I guess the rating's around K+-T? Wasn't too sure, but I put the rating as T, just in case.**

 _ **CHAPTER I - PROLOGUE TO AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE**_

A long time ago, in an ocean beyond all sights of land, the sun was beginning to fall behind the ocean as a gentle wind swept the waves calmly across the waters. With a few clouds scattered across the sky, it was a calm weather and the perfect time to start flying.

A large black and white bird soared across clear sky with the wind rolling off its back, feathers softly rustling against the breeze as it flapped its wings. Holding within its beak was a white pouch containing something very important. Normally these special birds are accompanied by others of its kind, but because this delivery became first priority among them, it had to travel alone, and very quickly.

An uncertain feeling was setting within the bird's stomach, and it didn't want to stop and find out why. Soaring effortlessly through the clouds, it was not able to push through this feeling. The bird cautiously scanned its head left to right, carefully not shaking the pouch too much, while its heart began to speed up like a motor drive.

These delivery birds have a sixth-sense of sort whereas they can sense a disturbing presence within its vicinity, in case of danger, but it could not have expected of what came next.

"Give me those babies!"

A ball containing massive amounts of energy had crashed onto the bird's back like a tonne of bricks, causing the bird to arch its back and shriek in pain.

However, in doing so, it had let got of the white pouch that it held close and fell, it fell fast.

With quick reflexes and strong endurance to withstand the pain, the bird folded its wings within itself and hoped that a pin-drop would save the pouch in time.

Suddenly out of nowhere, a strong pain had erupted its side as a familiar Magikoopa dressed in blue was riding upon a flying broomstick, cackling wildly while waving a wand around his head.

The pouch suddenly halted its free-fall with a purple and blue aura around it, causing it to suspend midair while the bird itself wasn't so lucky. It plummeted towards the ocean and allowed the sea to swallow it up. The ocean, luckily enough, wasn't very rough, but the outcome of the bird surviving or not was still unknown.

The Magikoopa with the suspending pouch beside him had zoomed away not long after and found a small isolated island to land on.

Setting the pouch beside him, he began to remove the knot and uncovered the contents, grinning in satisfaction of his possession.

Two babies; human, twins, and wore red and green hats respectively although they were a tad too big for their small heads, sleeping.

It seems that even the sounds of the world ending aren't enough to rattle these two from their slumber.

The Magikoopa's grinned turned evil as he felt energy, familiar but not too similar emitting from the within the babies themselves. It felt like heat from the most scorching fire, and static from a lightning bolt's touch, swirling around like a mixture within their tiny bodies. It felt powerful, it felt exhilarating.

And it was all theirs…

 **It's short I know, but the next chapter definitely has more. This is just one of those chapters you just need to jumpstart the story.  
** **Now hopefully I will actually do something to this story because this account's literally picking up dust at the moment, and now's the time to actually do something with it.  
R&R would be greatly appreciated!**


	2. 25 Years Later

_**Hey everyone! I'm actually back with a new chapter!**_

 _ **Suggested by a reviewer from last chapter, the title has finally gotten a change to Deluding Conundrum! Thank you because I honestly would never have thought of that.**_

 ** _I'm sorry this upload took a long while and too be honest, I unfortunately tend to procastinate a lot, so there's that._**

 ** _I'll try to get the next update sooner than last update, but no promises._**

 _ **Enjoy!**_

 _ **Chapter II ~ 25 Years Later...**_

The Darklands was a desolate kingdom ruled by the Koopas who lived there. Surrounded by lava and dead environment was a castle which was presented in a dark and ominous fasion, only meeting the entrance by crossing an unstable bridge held above the moat of lava by old rusty chains.

Inside the dark castle's metallic docking bay, where it looked completely furturistic compared to other parts of the castle, a man wearing a red leather jacket and royal blue cargo pants was inside one of the many airships stationed around, configuring the controls of his personal aircraft. Outside, another man, taller than the other sporting a green jacket in favour of the red, was looking at a crumbled piece of paper at a simple desk while unconsciously chewing on a pencil. They were by themselves in the docking bay as it was late through the night and the tiredness in both of their eyes showed their exhaustion and the want of sleep, but to be able to get this right, they had to do it now.

"Got anything yet, Luigi?" The red man asked poking his head through a tiny window above.

"I'm still working on it." Luigi replied taking the pencil out, grimacing at the chewed bits and the taste of lead left on his tongue. "I don't understand Bowser's idea of making me do all of the planning."

"C'mon bro, you're the egghead of everyone here." The man appeared on the airship's deck and jumped down from a massive height to meet his brother at ground level. "Besides." he dusted himself off. "What could possibly go wrong?"

Luigi groaned. "Well, if you insist on asking that question, I'd suggest thinking back on that temple raid in Sarasaland we did last year, where the self-dubbed 'Super Mario' thought it was a great idea to try to steal a large statue. Even though I warned you many times before, you insisted we needed it and almost ended up being trapped in there forever. And can you remember what you said to me just before that happened?"

"Okay, I got ya." Mario tried to laugh but came out as a nervous chuckle. "It's not gonna happen like that this time. We've got this."

"You said that a couple of months ago when we tried robbing a store in the Bean Bean Kingdom and you wounded up getting caught in the process."

"Alright, I got your point." The older brother interrupted before he revealed any more embarrassing situations. "I was lucky to have you bailing me out of there." He shivered. "I don't think I want to go through those pipes again."

Luigi sighed. "It was also lucky no one found out about it or..." A spine tingling sensation ran through his body. "I don't want to think what Bowser or Kamek would do to us."

Mario patted his brother's shoulder. "That's why I'm leaving all the thinking to you from now on."

"I don't think that's too much to work on." The younger brother mocked.

"Come here you!" Mario pulled Luigi into a headlock and gave him a playful noogie for payback. "Punishment delivery for Sassy McSass!"

All of the sudden, automatic doors from the other side of the room opened up to reveal a large Koopa with a spikey shell and red mane. Mario stopped his rough-housing and allowed his brother to squirm free with an irritated glare at his brother, his hair a mess from the older brother's knuckles.

"Bowser? What're you doing here so late at night?" Mario sounded surprised when he asked him.

"That's King Bowser to you!" The Koopa King sharply corrected as he made his way over towards the two, more specifically the younger brother. "Anyway, I'm just checking your progress on things. Anything new I should know about?" His gruff and booming voice rattled Luigi's bones.

"Uh... N-Not anything yet, sir." The younger brother shrivelled under Bowser's menacing gaze.

The Koopa King grumbled under his breath. "Well make it snappy! If I don't have an idea by morning, you'll be thrown out like all the other useless junk!" He discretely shot Mario a knowing glance before turning back to the doors as they opened. "Good night." The doors slammed shut.

Rubbing his temples in frustration, Bowser stomped along the obsidian corridors where he met a Magikoopa awaiting him on the other end, wearing a smirk and on his broomstick.

"I see it went well." The Magikoopa mocked, earning a glare from the Koopa King.

"Spare me the jokes, Kamek." He snarled, clearly not in the mood. "You told me years ago that they would be useful to us. Have you discovered it yet?"

"In due time, your highness." The Magikoopa reassured. "We just need to be patient with them until I find out what exactly I'm after. When I do, I assure you we will no longer have to speak to them again."

Bowser chuckled darkly. "I dream of the day."

Back at the docking bay, Mario turned to see his brother looking down in shame. "Don't worry about him, bro." He tried to console him. "I'm sure he won't throw us out."

"I don't know." Luigi muttered, feeling discouraged. "He's not the same as he was when we were younger."

"I know, I seen the change too." Mario agreed. "I wonder what snapped inside of him?"

"Well whatever it was, it had changed him for the worse." Luigi forced to shrugged the subject off. "I gotta get back to planning, you go to bed Mario." His brother shook his head.

"Not a chance." Mario insisted. "Bowser told us it was the princess' birthday in a few days, apparently it's their biggest event of the year. Fireworks and all. Maybe that'll give us something to work on?"

Luigi blinked. "Fireworks..." He thought aloud as an idea appeared to him in an instant.

"What?" The older brother questioned.

Luigi looked down onto the map where an open meadow was located next to the castle with the Mushroom Forest was written in a patch of dark green below it. On the other side a little away was a white patch labelled 'Frost capped Mountain'.

"Fireworks must be fired in an open area to prevent structures being caught up in flames." The younger brother muttered to himself. "That means they can only be let off on one side of the castle, and with everyone occupied with the fireworks, no one would bother to look around and that should be enough cover for us to get close to the princess!"

"See? Wasn't it great to leave all the thinking to you?" Mario laughed clapping a hand upon Luigi's shoulder. "I'm glad I could be an inspiration."

"I'm sure it was, bro." The younger brother playfully shoved his older brother's hand off him. "I can't believe that's done so quickly." He covered his mouth as he felt a yawn escape. "I think I really need that sleep now."

"Thank the stars at last!" Mario cheered. "It's almost two in the morning!"

Luigi couldn't help but chuckle as they left to finally get their rest.

The next morning, as expected, the two brothers were ordered by the castle servants to see Bowser and Kamek in the throne immediately. Luigi's nervousness had returned from last night after the Koopa King paid them a rather pleasant visit about the plan's update, and left on a high note.

Or so he wished that had happened instead.

At this moment, they arrived at two large red doors that led into the throne room. If Mario could voice his opinion, he would've asked the Koopa King to tone down his ego. There are faces of him everywhere on almost every decoration in the entire castle, especially one big face painted on the very doors they stood before it. But Mario would rather live.

With the help of two Koopas that guarded the throne entrance, the doors opened, allowing them to enter. Once inside were greeted with Bowser himself sitting upon his throne and his caretaker at his side awaiting their arrival.

As usual there were red and purple banners with the Koopa King's face on each one and stitched on the red carpet leading towards the throne. Behind the Koopa King, as well on each side of the room, were large empty windows showcasing the great landscape of nothing but lava pits, molten rock and the darkened sky.

Moving forward, Luigi's anxiety grew as he and his brother stood to face the Koopa King, beads of sweat began to form on his brows as he noticed a toothy grin on Bowser's face.

"Do you have anything to say now? Or was my generous time of the night over wasn't good enough?" Bowser's menacing tone was enough to shake the younger brother's legs on the spot.

"W-Well, lucky for you, I do." The younger brother groaned inwardly from his way of wording.

"Well? Stop stalling and spit it out already!" Bowser demanded, slamming is massive fist on the throne's armrest.

Luigi gulped. Mario beside him simply smiled and nodded his encouragement.

The younger brother had no choice. He took a deep breath and explained his plan of utilising the fireworks display as a means of distraction. As he went on, his confidence was lifted slightly when both Bowser and Kamek finally showed interest in his work and not mocking him of his thinking abilities. Probably for once anyway, he thought.

"Congratulations!" Bowser finally spoke. "You're not completely useless after all."

"Oh-well, thank you sir." The younger brother stuttered. Bowser leaned forward.

"Now you have to make sure this plan succeeds or we'll have some... additional problems." He lowered his voice to a threatening level. "Get the hint?"

Luigi's heart nearly stopped. "Y-Yes! Of course, sir!" He blurted.

Mario patted Luigi's shoulder "We'll won't let that happen, alright?." He whispered in a soft tone. Luigi nodded.

"If you want to make it to the princess' birthday, I suggest leaving as soon as possible." Kamek suggested, interrupting the two brothers. "It takes roughly one-to-two days travel by airship and that's stretching it."

"Great! Now get packed and get out." The Koopa King barked. "I don't want to see your faces again until the princess is here with you. Understand?"

Luigi nodded his head vigorously while Mario simply turned and rolled his eyes. Bowser can sure turn up the heat with any discussion.

Packed for the journey ahead, Mario met his brother down at the docking bay from last night and told him to get on board his airship, which was not so surprisingly red like his jacket.

"Time to get this road trip started!" Mario exclaimed cheerily as he pressed a button for a wireless signal to open the docking bay's outside entrance.

Outside, the lower part of the castle was separated enough to allow a small airship to be lifted away from the entrance. Without another thought, Mario steered the airship towards the horizon where a single beam of light could be seen and set the ship on course.

As they neared the outskirts of the Darklands, they watched the ground slowly receive colour of life and trees that actually have leaves grown on the branches, unlike back home where it was dead and bare like everything else there.

But this was no time to admire the view, they had a job to do.


	3. Author's Note

I'm sorry to say that this fan fiction has officially discontinued.

I know that I have said that it won't be long before a new chapter is posted, but I no longer have any motivation to continue no matter how many times I tried to get onto it again. It no longer interests me.

Again, sorry for the unnecessary hiatus.


End file.
